“Cold!” He laughed then caught my wrists and pulled me close. His breath tickled my cheeks. Water clung to his bangs and eyelashes.
“You know,” he said softly. “I think I’d like to kiss you without the excruciating fire all around us.”
Nerves bounced in my stomach then leaped into my throat, only so I could swallow them back down. “Oh?”
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Would that be all right?”
“Only if you promise not to use a spell.”
Zach chuckled, tilting his head to rest against my forehead. I laughed, too, and closed my eyes, leaning in to his touch.
My laughter was cut off by his lips. He captured my mouth fully with his and drew me in tighter. I succumbed to his kiss, all laughter gone, leaving nothing but a sensation that filled me—a sensation of such warmth and desire and pleasure and pure…happiness that I felt as if I were going to burst.
Unlike all my other kisses, instead of draining me of magic, this seemed to pump me full of its own.
I never wanted it to stop.
When Zach released me, our breaths were labored.
“Definitely better without the fire,” I muttered, his forehead still resting against mine.
He grinned and kissed me again, much softer than before.
Still blushing, I took his hand, stroking my fingertips against the Mark of Myriana. I wondered if Zach wanted it removed, since our marks were the very symbols of the curse we carried in our blood. A constant reminder that we could spread darkness with just one wrong Kiss.
“I’d like to keep it,” Zach said. As usual, he seemed to know what I was thinking.
“Are you sure? Even knowing what it means?”
“It can mean whatever I want it to mean,” he said. “And it means I’m yours.”
I wanted to bury my face in my hands out of embarrassment, even though I didn’t remember ever being so happy.
Zach took advantage of my shyness to lean in and kiss the spot below my ear, then my neck, then my collarbone.
Before I managed to lose all thought, I pushed him back with weak hands. “All right, you’ve made your point, but it still won’t be easy,” I said, “making the Legion believe in Love.”
“Don’t fret, my princess.” His lips brushed my temple. “We can change things.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And what makes you so sure we can break five hundred years of tradition and beliefs? An entire institution?”
“Well,” Zach said, gripping my hand and kissing the back of it, “I’ve heard it’s best to lead by example.”
For five centuries, the Legion has ruled with every good intention and a passion to protect the weak and innocent. We have ruled with logic and reason but persecuted those who thought differently, namely those who believed we should lead not only with our minds, but with our hearts. Today is the day we change. Today, we learn how to love once again. Today, we unite with the Romantica, and face the Darkness together…with Love to light the way.
Excerpt text from Queen Ivy Myriana
Epilogue
Three years later…
A small hand knocked the bottle of ink across the letter to the Council of Raed I’d just spent an hour working on, splattering the paper—and the front of my dress—with great big splotches of black. I closed my eyes, letting the irritation roll off me.
I gently clutched the wandering fingers and looked down at the child nestled in my lap. “What did I say, Tania?”
The toddler’s bright green eyes stared up at me, fixed in that wide-eyed look of wonderment and innocence children always had.
“Help you,” the little girl protested. “You run out.”
I curled my legs up in the chair, pushing Tania’s tiny body closer to my chest. “Thank you, my little wisp.” My kisses danced, light as feathers, across her cheeks.
She squealed with delight and threw her arms around my neck.
“There you are.” An exasperated Millennia stood in the doorway of my office, hands on her hips. Her dark hair was gathered elegantly at the nape of her neck and various wildflowers were nestled in her braids.
“Tania, what did I say about disturbing Queen Ivy?”
The little girl pouted in my lap. She tried to hide behind my knees and looked up at me with a look only a toddler could pull off—adorable innocence. “Do it?” she tried.
I burst into laughter as her mother plucked her off my lap.
“I’m sorry, I thought you knew where she was,” I said, placing the now-ruined letter into the wastebasket.
Tania played with her mother’s hair but grinned sneakily as if she and I shared a secret.
I’d made good on my promise to free Tarren almost as soon as we’d returned to Myria. Millennia and her childhood love ended up staying in Myria so Millennia could train under Master Gelloren. She was growing more and more adept at her elemental magic. They had also chosen to raise their child in the castle, since they had played an integral role in the effort to unite the Royals and the Romantica.
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about this little deviant.” Millennia bounced her daughter on her hip. “I was talking about you. It’s almost time for the wedding! Why aren’t you dressed?”
“What are you talking about? I have plenty of ti—” I stopped, glancing up at my clock, then clapped a hand over my mouth. “But I promised Brom I’d check on his new battle strategy today,” I protested. Where had the time gone this afternoon?
“Ivy, I think the war can take a break for just this one evening. The Commander will understand. Have you forgotten how important this wedding is?”
She was right. It was the first wedding among Royals in Myria, and in the past year, the war had been going remarkably well. In fact, it was barely a war now, more like small skirmishes on the outskirts of the four kingdoms, pushing residual Forces from villages.
It had taken much time, even more effort, and many lives to make it so.
The first year had been the worst. Many, many people had died.
While the True Love’s Kiss, Zach’s and mine, had destroyed several dark creatures in the northern sector of Myria, there were still innumerable monsters to defeat. After returning to Myria’s Crown City with news of the Hydra Curse, it took months of convincing. Months of battles where I would search for proof of the Royal’s Kiss’s true nature and treachery, but it was Master Gelloren who finally supported my claim. From there, the Legion slowly started implementing new battle tactics, removing the Royal’s Kiss completely and retraining troops in the art of combat. Women were taught swordsmanship, and everyone in the villages willing to take up arms was called to the castle to train.
In the first few major battles following the removal of the Royal’s Kiss, too many bodies littered the field, including the bodies of good friends. When I found Tulia lying with a cursed blade in her stomach, staring up with blank, unseeing eyes at the sky full of sparrow harpies, it was the first time I questioned whether or not we were doing the right thing. Were we too eager to get rid of the Kiss? Were we too weak to survive without it?
Zach held me that night, and I’d cried in his arms for hours. I’d cried for Tulia. I’d cried for fear of leading my people to their deaths. But as they always had, Zach’s arms enveloped me, gave me strength, and reminded me why we were doing this in the first place.
“Ivy.” Millennia slammed her hand on my desk and I jumped out of the past and back to the present. “If you don’t get dressed now, I will have Tania do your hair. Now go.”
I scribbled a note on my desk to rewrite the letter to the Council of Raed and stood. “Yes, all right. How is the bride, by the way?”
Millennia scowled. “She’d be doing a lot better with her best friend there.”
I winced. “You’ve made your point. I’m going.”